Established in 1872, the Tokyo National Museum is the oldest and also the largest national museum in Japan and one of the largest museums in the world. Its collection of more 110,000 objects includes 87 National Treasures and 610 Important Cultural Properties. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that photography is permitted in the galleries (with certain limitations: no flash, for example). Herewith a very small sampling from the museum’s enormous, and enormously impressive, collection.

A Visit to the Tokyo National Museum

The museum is located in Ueno Park, a spacious park in Taito, Tokyo, which is also home to several other museums. This view from one small part of the park takes in the rear of the museum's Japanese Gallery in the background.

The museum comprises several collections in five main buildings. The Honkan, seen here, houses the Japanese Gallery.

Standing Sho Kannon Bosatsu (Avalokitesvara). Gilt bronze. This is a 20th-century copy of the original, now in Yakushiji, Nara, from the 7th–8th century and the Asuka-Nara period.

Folding screen detail. Ink on paper

Folding screen detail

Orchids, by Gyokuen Bonpo (1348–1420?). Ink on paper. The artist was a Zen monk.

Cherry Blossom Viewing (detail of a folding screen), by Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631–1705). Edo period, 17th century. A prince at his villa, with attendants, enjoying composing poetry among cherry blossoms in a scene from The Tales of Ise

Standing Shiten' no, Heavenly Kings. Wood with inlaid crystal eyes. Kamakura period, 14th century. They are seen with the Seated Thousand-armed Kannon Bosatsu (see below). Armor-clad deities guard the four cardinal directions. They are modeled after the four guardian sculptures at the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple in Nara.

A veranda at the back of the Japanese Gallery looks out onto this view.

Before leaving the museum grounds, a quick stop at the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, designed by architect Yoshio Taniguchi, among whose other projects has been the redesign of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, completed in 2004. Of the building seen here, Taniguchi has written, "Out of a desire to respect both the sublime works to be displayed and the natural setting, I made it my goal . . . to create on the site an environment of a kind that has become all too rare in present-day Tokyo, that is, an environment characterized by tranquility, order and dignity."

Man-made pond in front of the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures

Leaving the Tokyo National Museum's grounds, looking toward the mall in Ueno Park